November 18, 2005

NEWS RELEASE

Prime Minister Paul Martin today welcomed the appointment of Ian Shugart, Senior Assistant Deputy Minister at Health Canada, as chair of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Health Task Force. The Health Task Force was created two years ago after the outbreak of SARS, to address health-related threats to economies, focusing mainly on emerging infectious diseases.

“It is with great pleasure that I welcome the appointment, by APEC Senior Officials, of Mr. Shugart to chair the APEC Health Task Force” Prime Minister Martin said. “The importance of the Task Force has been highlighted by the current threat of avian flu and pandemic influenza. There is no doubt Canada’s leadership role in pandemic influenza preparedness, together with Mr. Shugart’s long experience in the area of public health, will contribute to advancing health security within the APEC region.”

The work of the APEC Health Task Force includes development and implementation of projects to promote information-sharing and capacity building among APEC’s members, currently meeting in Busan, South Korea, for the APEC Ministerial and Leaders’ Meetings from November 15-19. Recent APEC projects have included: work on pandemic preparedness assessments, establishment of an APEC Emerging Infections Information Network to share information among APEC members on emerging infectious diseases, and workshops examining the challenges of addressing HIV/AIDS in the workplace and among vulnerable populations.

Several countries experiencing the current influenza outbreak are APEC members, including China, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam. One new project of the Health Task Force will work toward the establishment of general protocols and systems to help APEC members continue to function in the event of a pandemic.

Mr. Shugart’s appointment will start in January 2006 and is effective for two years.

“Health Canada has offered to chair the Task Force because it will give us a better opportunity to share our expertise more directly with a good number of members either threatened or affected, and it fits very well with the work we are doing internationally on this issue,” Prime Minister Martin said, noting that Canada recently hosted an international meeting of Ministers of Health to enhance global planning and collaboration on pandemic influenza.

Mr. Shugart is currently the Senior Assistant Deputy Minister for the Health Policy Branch at Health Canada. He has been an Assistant Deputy Minister at Health Canada since 1999, and served in the former Health Protection Branch as a Visiting Assistant Deputy Minister. He was also the Executive Director of the former Medical Research Council (now the Canadian Institutes of Health Research). Mr. Shugart is a member of the executive board of the World Health Organization (WHO), and chairs the Global Health Security Action Group of the G7 countries plus Mexico.

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